Timothée Chalamet won Best Male Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy at the 83rd Golden Globes for his role. Marty SupremeAnd the performance is a reminder of the 30-year-old Hollywood star’s penchant for method acting. The actor, who is known to go to great lengths to bring roles to life on screen, trained rigorously in the game of table tennis to play Marty Mauser, the character he plays. Marty Supreme Who dreams of improving the game and making it bigger. In fact, according to the film’s director Josh Safdie, Chalamet suffered from a “bad” eye infection due to his excessive training regimen.

This approach is reminiscent of how Timothée Chalamet learned to speak Italian for his role in the 2017 release, call me by your nameAnd in addition to learning to sing and play the harmonica, he also started playing guitar off-screen in preparation for his role as Bob Dylan in 2025. a complete unknown. If Chalamet earned Oscar nominations for both roles, Marty SupremeI am coming after my victory golden globesMakes him a favorite for the Best Actor trophy at the Oscars this year.

Is Timothée Chalamet’s Marty Supreme a real person?

Marty Supreme is a sports comedy drama, and Chalamet’s protagonist, Marty Mauser, is an up-and-coming sports player who seeks perfection and success in the game. Although the character is fictional, it is said to be loosely based on Marty Reisman, an American table tennis champion who won the US men’s singles championship in 1958 and 1960, and was the US hardbat champion in 1997. The late Reisman is widely considered a pioneer of the traditional hardbat style of the game.

Apart from his playing, Marty Reisman was also known for his glamorous personality. He was affectionately called The Needle because of his sharp physique as well as his tendency to react sharply. There is so much more. Reisman was a genius as well as a businessman and legend has it that he bet liberally on himself against anyone willing to bet. Later, after becoming a star, he launched a luxurious table tennis club on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, where, among other celebrities, Dustin Hoffman was a regular.

Timothée Chalamet trained quietly for years

When preparing for a role based on real life, most actors watch video footage of a given subject and absorb it, but Chalamet went several steps further and trained extensively in table tennis to become his character – a champion at the highest level. For this, the team of Chalamet and Marty Supreme Contacted Diego Sheff and Wei Wang.

Simply put, Diego Sheff and his wife Wei Wang, an American Olympian, are Hollywood’s go-to table tennis experts when producers need their stars serving aces with an authentic touch. He has trained actors in films such as Forrest Gump And balls of furyIn addition to classic sitcom series, to name a few, Friend.

The actor spent seven years mastering the role, and did so quietly in between shooting several high-profile projects dune movies, wonka, a complete unknown And King.

Chalamet told the BBC, “I was approached for this project in 2018. That basically gave me six, seven years to prepare. In all my free time, I would train as much as possible.”

Chalamet said, “I think in this movie, like the Bob Dylan movie, if you were a fan of Dylan or a guitar player, the responsibility is to make sure that he feels real to you on screen. Similarly here, if you’re a fan of Ping-Pong, it feels believable to you.”

In an interview with NBC, Diego Schaff said of the actor: “He was totally dedicated to making it as good as the rest of the movie.”

Schaff said that Timothée Chalamet showed a natural ability to excel in the game. “We watched (Chalamet) play, and we wanted to see how we could make a professional player out of him.” He added, “Do we believe he has the athletic ability to do that? I watched him hit for a few minutes. ‘Yeah, he can do that’.”

In an interview in December 2025 hollywood reporterSheff recalled how the training became more intense from 2024 onwards, to capture the essence of the era being shown in the story. “We really worked at it last summer,” Schaaf said. “We had to bring the stroke mechanics from the 1950s to a world-class level, which is completely different to the way the game is played today.” Meanwhile, Wang focused on helping Timothée Chalamet master playing techniques specific to the era.

Sheff recalled how demanding the actor was when it came to perfecting his gameplay for the role. “Different styles have very different strokes, and he understood all of that,” Trainor said, adding, “He had no interest in doing the bare minimum. Even when he got it right, he’d say, ‘Let’s do it again’.”

The greatest asset, Schaff said, was Chalamet’s flexibility. “Timothy, being a dancer, immediately understood how to move,” Sheff said, “but we had to make that work within the context of a relatively fast drama.

“In recreational table tennis, you can hardly move. It was very athletically demanding. He memorized every point, every movement, every shot. Timing was important – some shots float, others travel fast – and he understood it immediately. He performed incredibly well,” said Schaaf, who coincidentally appears in a cameo as an umpire in the final match.

Timothée Chalamet suffered an eye infection while preparing for the role.

Director Josh Safdie addressing fans and media at the New York City premiere Marty SupremeTimothée Chalamet said he “almost lost an eye” during filming. according to hollywood reporterChalamet previously wore contacts to “mess up” his vision, so he would need actual glasses to fit into Marty’s signature look. According to Safi, this caused a “severe” eye infection, the report said.

About Marty Supreme

Josh Safdie’s sports comedy drama tries to capture the emotional instability of a budding table tennis player obsessed with perfection. this movie Set to release across theaters in India on January 23, 2023.

Timothée Chalamet’s co-star Marty Supreme Gwyneth Paltrow, Odessa Azien, Kevin O’Leary, Abel Ferrara and Tyler, The Creator.